The long-term goal of this study is to develop useful models of local mental health delivery systems. A systems perspective is employed to help assess why some CSS's are effective and others are not. The research builds on an earlier NIHR project that identified model CSS's. New sites are selected for their effectiveness or ineffectiveness and demographic similarity to exemplary sites already studied. The system effectiveness measures provide a systematic means for studying: (1) perceptions of key system participants on the extent to which local programs serving the chronically mentally ill are providing the ten "essential service components" identified in National Institute of Mental Health policy; and (2) the degree of integration that exists among local mental health and human service agencies that deliver services to the target population. Both these indicators of program effectiveness are pertinent to the philosophy and goals of the federal Community Support initiative. The measures are easy to administer and promise to be generalizable to other states and sites. Findings from studies of local CSS's using these measures can be useful to state mental health agencies in the areas of needs assessment, CSS evaluation, service planning, manpower development, and local resource mobilization. The main objectives of the research are: 1) to identify and validate criteria of local service system performance. 2) to identify discrepant perceptions of service system performance among stakeholders and targets in local systems. 3) to document the impact of community-level interorganizational factors on the development of comprehensive community support systems. 4) to explicate models of community support systems that are conducive to exemplary performance.